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i^lsb Syracuse university. 

Addresses and other exercises at the inauguration of 
Alexander Winchell as chancellor of the Syracuse uni- 
versity, Thursday, Feb. 13, 1873. Syracuse, Daily Jour- 
nal book and job printing house, 1873. 

79 p. 22*="^ 

Contents. — Congratulatory address on behalf of the students, by G. W. 
Elliott. — Address on behalf of the alumni, by Rev. O. L. Gibson. — Address 
on behalf of the faculties, by Professor H. B. Wilbvir. — Address of wel- 
come on behalf of the colleges and universities of the state, by Rev. S. G. 
Brown. — Inaugurating address of Bishop J. T. Peck, with the reply of 
Chancellor Winchell. — Inaugural address of Chancellor Winchell. 

I. Winchell, Alexander, 1824-1891. 

7-8756t 
Library of Congress LD5237.4 1873 



INAUGURATION 



OF 




lexkudef Win<il\ell 



AS 



Chancellor of the Syracuse University. 



1873. 



ADDRESSES 



AND 



OTHER EXERCISES 



AT THE 




INAUGURATION OF 



lexk^def WincJljell 



A S 



CHANCELLOR OF THE SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, 



Thursday, Feb. 13, 1873. 






SYRACUSE : 

Daily Journal Book and Job Printing House, 

187J. 



«1S 




The Syracuse University went into operation on the 
thirty-first day of August, 1871. Its By-Laws provide for 
the appointment of a Chancellor ; but during the first year, 
no appointment was made. The duties of the office were 
performed by Rev. Daniel Steele, D. D., Vice-President of 
the College of Liberal Arts, who, at the close of the year, 
resigned his connection with the University. On the ninth 
of August, 1872, the Board of Trustees, duly assembled, 
elected as Chancellor of the University and President of the 
College of Liberal Arts, Alexander Winchell, LL. D., then, 
and for nineteen years previous, the Professor of Geology, 
Zoology and Botany in the University of Michigan. 

Dr. Winchell entered upon the active discharge of his 
duties on the 17th of January, 1873, Professor J. R. French. 
LL. D., having officiated as chief executive during the 
earlier portion of the collegiate year. 

The arrangements for the inauguration were completed 
under the direction of the Executive Committee of the 
Board of Trustees. The following announcement and in- 
vitation were embodied in a circular, which was extensively 
distributed to the friends of the University, and persons 
interested in the cause of education throughout the State. 

Syracuse University, Jan 31, 1873. 
You are respectfully invited to be present at the inauguration of Alexander 
Winchell, LL. D., as Chancellor of the University, which will take place at Wiet- 
ing Opera House, in Syracuse, on Thursday, February 13th, at half-past two o'clock 
in the afternoon. 



A reception will be given by Chancellor Winchell, in Convention Hall, on the 
evening of the same day, between the hours of seven and eleven, at which all 
the friends of the University are cordially invited to be present. 

JESSE T. PECK, 
President of the Board of Trustees. 
OTIS L. GIBSON, 
President of the Alumni Association. 

On the appointed day, the friends and well-wishers of the 
University had assembled in large numbers from all parts 
of the State. The large Opera House was filled with a 
select and appreciative audience. The stage was occupied 
by the Faculties, the Trustees, the Speakers and represent- 
atives of other collegiate institutions. The following was 
the order of exercises for the occasion : — 

PROGRAMME. 

I.— MUSIC. 

2.— READING OF SCRIPTURE, by Rev. J. B.Wentworih, D. D., of Buffalo. 

3. — PRAYER, by Rev. George Lansing Taylor, A. M,, of Hempstead, L. I. 

4._MUSIC. 

5. —CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS, on behalf of the Students, by George 
W. Elliott, of the Senior Class of the College of Liberal Arts, 

6. — ADDRESS on behalf the Alumni, by Rev. Otis L. Gibson, of Towanda, Pa., 
President of the Alumni Association. 

7.— MUSIC. 

g. — ADDRESSj on behalf of the Faculties of the University, by Professor Hervey 
B. Wilbur, M. D., of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. 

9.— ADDRESS OF WELCOME, on behalf of the Colleges and Universities of 
the State, by Rev. S. Oilman Brown, D, D., LL. D., President of Ham- 
ilton College. 

10.— MUSIC. 

II.— INDUCTION OF THE CHANCELLOR-ELECT INTO OFFICE, with 
an Address by Bishop Jesse T. Peck, D. D., President of the Board of 
Trustees. 

12.— INAUGURAL ADDRESS, by Chancellor Winchell. 

13.— MUSIC. 

14— BENEDICTION, by Rev. Dallas D. Lore, D. D., of Syracuse. 

The music of the occasion was rendered by the Opera 
House Orchestra. The citizens of Syracuse manifested a 
great degree of interest in the proceedings ; of which the 
daily papers of the following day contained extended ac- 
counts. The evening reception was attended by a very 
large concourse of the friends of the University. 



0iigraiiiiiiror| Jttiiiren 



ON BEHALF OF THE STUDENTS, 



BY 



GEORGE W. ELLIOTT, 



OF THE 



Senior Class of the College of Liberal Arts. 




Respected Sir : — 

We assemble to-day to do honor to an occasion, the Uke 
of which has never before transpired within this goodly city. 
Syracuse, with all its praiseworthy characteristics, has, until 
quite recently, lacked a crowning glory of its varied excel- 
lencies — an educational institution of advanced grade. 

The ancients in their estimate of the relative omnisci- 
ence and omnipotence of their divinities placed Minerva 
second only to Jove, Wisdom next in importance to Religion ; 
and these principles, personified - to them, abstract to us, 
sustain the same relation to-day. The latter had long held 
sovereignty in this community ; but the former — what domin- 
ion was hers ? Conscientiously and zealously the people re- 
sponded. Here will we erect a throne in her honor, here 
consecrate a fane to her worship ; and Wisdom has been 
exalted. 

The timbers are being hewn, the stones prepared, and 
without noise of ax or of chisel, the shrine of Minerva on 
yonder hill is steadily, silently growing to fuller proportions. 
And if it shall be constructed with as consummate a skill, 
and shall be subservient of as divine a purpose, shall it be 
less the admiration of the world, less a benefit to the race 
than was that other temple which crowned the summit of 
Moriah ? But an important stage of the work has been 
reached. Proud of the progress which has been made, 
devoted to the principle on which this institution is based, 
we come together to-day to honor him who has been chosen 
to preside over its ministrations. 



8 

To you, Sir, the Chancellor of the University, on behalf 
of my fellow students, I extend most cordial Welcome ! 
It is not to be supposed that we are less concerned for the 
prosperity of the University than are its Trustees, its 
Alumni, or its friends. Sharing with these a common in- 
terest in this auspicious occasion, no less heartily do we 
congratulate the institution upon having secured so able 
and distinguished an Executive ; no less willingly do we 
accord to that executive ottr unreserved good-will. 

Coming from a University which is thoroughly establish- 
ed, and quite complete in all the paraphernalia of endow- 
ments, cabinets, libraries, etc., to one which exists as yet, in 
its entirety, chiefly in theory, you assume a great and critical 
responsibility. Your duties will be arduous. Discordant 
opinions must be harmonized ; financial embarrassments 
avoided ; the interests of sound education conserved, and 
the University established in undoubted permanency and 
unquestioned excellence. Called to the Chancellorship of 
an institution which is yet in the precarious period of in- 
fancy, to you is committed its care ; by you is to be formed 
its character ; through you is to be determined its reputa- 
tion ; and for you it is to be a monument of glory or a 
tumulus of reproach. 

So seldom are College Presidents successful in their 
sphere, that we are inclined to say of them, as of poets, 
*'They are born, not made." Nevertheless, born or made, 
no success commensurate with their efforts can possibly be 
attained, unless they have the sympathy and co-operation of 
their coadjutors, the Trustees, the Alumni, and the Under- 
graduates. As a representative of the latter body, then, it 
affords me supreme pleasure to pledge to you their willing 
support in all your efforts for the upbuilding of the Univer- 
sity, and a cheerful acquiescence in whatever you shall 
deem conducive to the common-weal ; and you will permit 
me, Sir, to express the hope that the relations this day 



established between the Chancellor and the undergraduates, 
may ever be of the most intimate and amicable character. 
In you we shall expect all that is implied in a counsellor and 
friend. In us you will look for manliness and principle. 
A counsellor in those days, when, to young people, advice is 
most necessary ; a friend when the trials of life are first ex- 
perienced and most oppressive. Manliness in our respect 
for authority ; principle in a firm adherence to all just re- 
quirements. We have every reason to believe that there 
will be established between us this day a reciprocity of 
interest and esteem. 

That period is rapidly approaching, if it be not already 
present, when the evolution of an idea, and not a conquest 
of arms, is to be considered the grandest triumph of human 
genius. Already Caesar'sglory pales before Newton's; Alex- 
ander's grows dim in the presence of Fraunhofer's. Athens, 
the learned, excels Rome, the warlike ; Syracuse, with its 
Archimedes, surpasses Carthage, with its Hannibal. Re- 
publicanism, the product of the political thought of nearly 
sixty centuries, is an idea, and it feeds on that which gave 
it being. Thought is its bulwark, the educated classes its 
defenders, the universities its Delphic oracles. A learned 
writer affirms that "legislators should, as a rule, follow in 
the wake of popular thought." True : but the universities 
should keep abreast of popular thought, and furnish sound 
ideas to the masses. The great Napoleon once said : — 
"When bayonets think, thrones tremble," and we may add, 
when the people reflect, republics are safe. 

In view of the fact then, that the stability of republican 
institutions is lodged in the intelligence of the masses, may 
we not assume that liberty enjoins upon the university what 
Rome did upon the Consul : " Videret, ne quid res ptiblica 
detrimcnti caperct f We expect as a nation to inscribe our 
name high on the scroll of fame, in fact, to occupy the very 
first place in the catalogue of great peoples. If this be our 
"manifest destiny," and it be fully realized, it will not be be- 



10 

cause of our business energy, nor of our public enterprise, 
nor of our martial triumphs, but rather because we shall 
have fostered Christian learning and the dissemination of 
immortal ideas. 

But the name of the University over which you are to 
preside is a classical one — one recalling to mind the proto- 
type of this generous city. Although situated on an island 
which rested like an emerald on the bosom of the Mediter- 
ranean, and surrounded by blazing hills and fertile vales, en- 
joying a goodly degree of prosperity with respect to com- 
merce and trade, of no secondary importance in the politics 
of the times, noted in her later days for the purity of her 
democracy and the integrity of her public men, distinguished 
for many a martial triumph, yet to none of these things is 
Sicilian Syracuse indebted for the honored place which she 
occupies in history. But, rather, if her name be linked with 
anything of glory, if it be among the illustrious of the past, 
it is because she gave birth to and fostered the genius of 
one of the greatest scientists of antiquity. To him who 
preferred the retirement of his study with square and com- 
pass to the highest offices in the land ; to him, who, by his 
consummate scientific skill, defended his native city against 
the combined attacks of foreign powers ; to him who may 
be regarded as the father of the science of Mechanics ; 
to him who made many valuable discoveries in the realm 
of Hydrostatics ; to him who enriched the accumulations of 
Mathematics, and to him, finally, who, inspired with the 
greatness of science, exclaimed, "Give me a place on which 
to stand and I will move the world" — to Archimedes and 
to the fame which Jie acquired, is Syracuse, the ancient, in- 
debted for the resplendent glory which encircles her name. 
Likewise with the modern ; although located in the heart 
of the Empire State — this later "garden of the Hesperides" 
— and abounding in wealth ; the center of many commercial 
enterprises ; possessing a powerful political influence ; an 
important factor in the prosperity of the State ; yet from 



II 

none of these things can she expect an especial and an en- 
during fame. But if her name shall live in history at all, 
it will be because, by giving birth to and fostering a Uni- 
versity of advanced grade, she will have contributed a modi- 
cum toward a higher civilization, and have bequeathed that 
richest of benefactions, a legacy of ideas to the world. 

Comparatively, the work has just begun. The founda- 
tions are scarcely above ground. The cap-stone has not 
yet felt the quarryman's steel. " Qiiantiis eqtcis, qiiantns 
adcst viris Sudor T Our faith in the ultimate establishment 
of this institution is strong, but unless the plan of the Great 
Architect be consulted, and the Master Builder himself 
direct the work, that faith is utterly vain. 

The task before you. Sir, is a noble one, yea, in its broadest 
sense, patriotic. As undergraduates, our aifections twine 
about our Alma Mater, Her prosperity is our joy ; her ad- 
versity, our sorrow ; and toward you, as the guardian of her 
interests, we entertain none but the kindliest of sentiments. 

May He who inspired Solomon for his work, impart to 
you infinite foresight and discretion. May the bases of this 
temple be Christian learning, the columns disciplined mind, 
the capitals consecrated intellect — the whole sustaining the 
entablature of Eternal Truth. Then will it be a monument 
of glory to its builders, the pride of the city, an honor to the 
State, a Palladium of the Republic. Then will it be an 
instrument in the enlightenment of mankind more potent 
even than the lever of Archimedes. Again, sir, I bid you 
welcome to Syracuse University. 



ihm 



PI 



ON BEHALF OF THE ALUMNI, 



BY 



Rev. OTIS L. GIBSON, A. M., 
President OF the Alumni Association, 




Mr. President of the Board of Trustees : — 

When a noble ship of the line, damaged and leaky from 
a tempestuous voyage, having been put upon the stocks, 
thoroughly overhauled, re-rigged and re-named, is launched 
again, and now, at last, stronger than ever, weighing a heavier 
anchor and spreading ampler sails for a grander cruise, ships 
her new and gallant commander, it is time for the crew to 
man the yards and join with all on board and all on shore 
in the hearty cheering. And I congratulate myself that I 
am permitted to toss my tarpaulin and lead the cheers of 
those who mostly got their sea legs on board the old ship — 
which is now the new ship. 

Now, sir, for fear my stock of sea terms might not hold 
out, I desire just here to change the figure, and also to re- 
lieve myself from a little embarrassment which the situa- 
tion places me in as a representative of your Alumni. 

The cold idea prevails, more or less, among outsiders and 
new men, that we, the old Alumni, are only adopted chil- 
dren ; that our own dear mother is dead, and that we little 
shivering orphans were picked up out of sheer benevolence, 
and allowed a sort of stepmotherish protection here at 
Syracuse. "Now, at all this I utterly demur, and I am pre- 
pared to maintain the claim that we were all born of this 
mother, and that this is none other than our dear old Gen- 
esee herself, just a little changed on the outside and smarted 
up and sporting a new title — all out of compliment, no doubt, 
to the brave little city which she honors with her presence. 



i6 

This story, sir, is all in a nutshell. Our Alma Mater was 
leading an honorable and dignified but rather retired life in 
a little country village called Lima. 

I am bound to admit that as her income was somewhat 
limited she had to practice the strictest economy to live at 
all, and even then fell behind. By and by there came an 
invitation from your ambitious little city to remove hither, 
accompanied with generous promises of wider patronage and 
abundant material aid. She was inclined to listen. She 
called together her sons, counsellors and patrons from far 
and near, and with one voice they bade her go and prosper 
So she consented ; but just as she was picking up her duds 
to go, a difficulty arose. Some of the inhabitants of the little 
village she had honored so long with her presence preferred 
a singular claim for debt. It was truly Falstaffian in its 
character. Falstafif, you remember, had bragged that the 
Prince of Wales owed him a thousand pounds. The Prince 
hearing it, confronts him savagely witlji — 

" Sirrah ! do I owe you a thousand pounds .''" 
"A thousand pound! Hal, thou owest me 2i million ! 
My love is worth a million pound — thou owest me thy 
love !" 

So the departure of the blameless, debtless Genesee was 
blocked by a claim upon the light and blessing of her per- 
petual presence — a claim so unjust that it could not be al- 
lowed, and so extravagant that its payment would have cost 
her both life and honor. So pending endless technicalities 
of law, she quietly slipped away with almost every child and 
chick she had, and every real friend, Faculty, Students, 
Alumni, Trustees, Patrons and Conferences, and accepting 
the new name and title that you gave her, and the ampler 
field for her work, she sits a queen among your palace 
crowned hills ; and every Alumnus, sir, recognizes in hers 
the well-known voice and features of the dear old Alma 
Mater that nursed him in her maternal arms and ushered 
him into literary life. 



^7 

It needed not the harmless form, I had almost said farce, 

of a vote of adoption by your trustees to make us at home in 

the presence of one who knew us almost before she knew you. 

The idea that Genesse College is dead, is a very stupid 

delusion. 

'Genesee College lives to-day in Syracuse University. 
The noble men who planned and labored and sacrificed to 
establish her, and the equally noble men who toiled and 
sacrificed within her walls, have never been called to bewail 
the failure of their work. Their hearts and hopes and prayers 
have followed her hither. TJie sweat of her twenty-five years 
struggle is the richest pa^t of your endowment. 

And now let me say, Mr. Chairman, that the children have 
never ceased to feel proud of their mother. Her record 
in the past, though humble, is highly honorable. She faith- 
fully nourished and brought up her sons and daughters; 
She held the standard of scholarship high. She never sent 
out a child of hers with a lie upon his parchment. And if 
she Jias occasionally dubbed an ambitious aspirant after 
" semi-lunar fardels," whose qualifications for the honor were 
more patent in the persistence of influential friends than 
in his books or brains, she may be pardoned a weakness 
which, I am sorry to say, is a too common one and which, I 
hope, she will set a good example by avoiding in the future. 
Now, these older children and those our dear Alma Ma- 
ter has borne in this place, not our half-brothers, Mr. Chair- 
man, not foster-brothers, but dear little real brothers and 
sisters, desire me on their behalf to utter words of congrat- 
ulation and welcome on the occasion of the formal induc- 
tion into office of our honored Chancellor. And in doing 
this, I believe I speak what is in the heart of every 
Alumnus and Alumna, when I say, we are glad that you, Mr. 
Chancellor, were the choice of the trustees for the Chancellor- 
ship, and we heartily welcome you to your place at the head 
of this young University — our honored Alma Mater. 

You were chosen, not because you occupied an honor- 



i8 

able and prominent position elsewhere, but because you 
have nobly filled and greatly honored that position. And 
we hail your advent among us to-day, not only believing 
that your past record will shed lustre upon our University, 
but that you will make a record here also that will bring 
honor at once to yourself and her. 

In placing a layman at the head of this University, whose 
grandest thought and motive is a religious one, we but 
do honor to the advancing sentiment of the age which 
puts the laity side by side with the ministry in all Chris- 
tian enterprises and labors. And in selecting to represent 
our educational idea, a Christian Scientist, we have re- 
cognized the fact that the department of Physical Science is 
to-day the precise ground where Christian learning is called 
to repel the most determined assaults of Atheistic materialism. 
. In investing you, therefore, w4th the duties and digni- 
ties that appertain to the high office to which you have been 
chosen, so far from having the slightest wish to interfere 
with your investigations and inquiries in your favorite de- 
partment, permit us to hope that Physical Science may still 
profit by your labors and studies, and that Syracuse Univer- 
sity may not only share the distinction which you may yet 
further deserve for your services in this field ; but that in 
your lifetime you may send many a young man and woman 
out from its walls prepared to do distinguished battle with 
these wholly earth-born titans. 

The Christianity of this age does not distrust anything 
that science really says. 

With a devout faith in the Written Word, there is a faith 
scarcely less sublime in the utterances of nature ; because 
we believe that the same God thatmade the Word made also 
the World, and that the words and works of the true God 
can never conflict. Religion, therefore, knows no oppo- 
sitions of science but those that are falsely so called. 

It has seemed to me that the great fault of skeptical 
scentists has been that they generahze too fast. Not con- 



19 

tent with recording faithfully each step of progress in in- 
vestigation, waiting for each supposed discovery to ripen 
into an established fact, and ascertaining with deliberate 
faithfulness its true place in the system of universal truth, 
they seem in eager haste to compel each crude and uncer- 
tain novelty of science to figure prominently in the interest 
of their dogmatic atheism. Of course these triumphs are 
short-lived, as the triumphs of the wicked must always be- 
But it is one of the trusts committed to the Christian Sci- 
entist to make them harmless, also, by a swift and thorough 
exposure of the falsity of such conclusions. 

It can never be said truthfully that Christian Science is 
hostile to facts. It hails their advent with delight, from 
whatever source. It rejoices to lead the van in the con- 
stantly enlarging field of discovery. But it does not feel 
called upon to adopt the hasty and prejudiced philosophy 
which men hostile to the faith stand always ready to append 
to their discoveries. While it gives to all well ascertained 
facts, the largest liberty, it subjects questionable discoveries 
to the most rigid tests. It looks with reverent eye upon 
each new word of nature's revelation, and listens with rev- 
erent ear to each new utterance of God by nature's voice, 
and then only is it prepared to say whether these revelations 
from material sources be not in harmony with the hitherto 
unimpeached zvord. Thus it is that true science which is also 
Christian science, renders innocuous the intermixed false- 
hoods of infidel scientists. And it is because of its wide 
prevalence and eminence and discriminating thoroughness 
that the labors and discoveries of such magnificent skep- 
tics as Darwin and Tyndall are made to yield a harvest of 
invaluable contributions to the treasures of sound Christian 
IDhilosophy. Let us rejoice, then, at the outlook which we 
are permitted to take from the standpoint of the present hour 
\ ^ The cause of Christian learning had never before so un- 
obstructed a field and so grand a leverage under the human 
mind, to lift it up, as it has to-day. 



20 

The light of Christian science has a steady increase. Its 
ecUpse is not now to be feared or even thought of With 
Christ all thQ facts of the material universe are in eternal 
harmony, for without Him was not anything made that was 
made. It is in this faith that the Alumni of Syracuse Uni- 
versity welcome you and your new associates to-day, and 
bid you a hearty Godspeed. We pledge to you our humble 
but hearty co-operation by word, and deed, and prayer. 

Let me now, in conclusion, congratulate our rising Uni- 
versity on its rare prospects — a central position, a large and 
continually increasing endowment, an able Faculty, a mimef- 
ous -Bcci^ prodigiously distinguished body of Alumni ; a beauti- 
ful, thriving city, proud of its possession ; a religious denomi- 
nation, the largest in the State, and just waking up grandly 
to its educational responsibilities, wholly pledged to its sup- 
port. And last, but not least, in the judgment of this de- 
ponent, tJie choice of men for Chancellor. 



®^K) 



On Behalf of the Faculties of the University, 



BY 



Professor HERVEY B. WILBUR, M. D., 



Of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. 




Mr. Chancellor: — 

Through the kindness of the Faculty of the College of 
Liberal Arts of the Syracuse University, I have been re- 
quested in their behalf and in behalf of my colleagues of 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, to speak a word of 
greeting to you at this time ; and, aside from the distrust 
I naturally feel, lest what I say may fall short, in thought 
or manner, of the demands of the occasion, I frankly con- 
fess that duty and inclination run kindly together. 

There is a welcome, born of a general feeling of good 
fellowship, that,'on occasions like these, wells up impulsively 
from every heart, towards a stranger, who comes with an 
open face, a manly bearing and a courteous manner. 

But, there is a deeper source, from which the greeting 
flows, to which I would now give utterance. For, under the 
present circumstances,, any welcome worthy of the name- 
any welcome that will bear continual fruit, through com- 
ing years, in a spontaneous and hearty co-operation in all 
your plans and efforts, in a warm and ready sympathy in 
your purposes and hopes, in short, in that genuine loyalty 
which the members of any faculty should bear their cor- 
porate head, must be based upon reason, and judgment 
and interest, as well as upon kindly feeling. 

In a sense, you come among us no stranger. We know 
somewhat of the personal history, of the character and the 
attainments, as well as the peculiar experience that led to 



24 

your selection as our head ; and by that knowledge, we 
have the warrant that you yourself know what, for a start 
in life, a liberal education gives one who fitly improves such 
opportunities. You must have known, by experience and 
observation, that the foundation thus laid is broad enough 
for any superstructure of knowledge, that time and health 
and opportunity permit, if industry and enthusiasm but 
guide and inspire ; and that the Humanities and the 
Sciences, blended in the daily work of the undergraduate, 
combine and mingle in ever new and unfolding relations, 
in the continued after-pursuits of the life-scholar. 

You can measure the personal influence that the several 
members of a faculty, whether collegiate or professional, 
can exert in moulding the character and pointing the tastes 
and am.bition of the student. For you know, by a varied 
experience as a teacher, what a quickening of the faculties, 
what earnestness of purpose and what energy, the work of 
instruction in any department of knowledge gives a man — 
and for the same reason, you can sympathize with and par- 
don one who in such a calling may exalt his specialty and 
magnify its relations. 

Besides, we know your faith in humanity, in all its 
breadth, and unconditioned by race or sex ; with all the 
motives, hopes and aspirations that belief in immortality 
gives ; and so, the necessity of a union of culture with re- 
ligion in any scheme of education. For I take it, Mr. 
Chancellor, that the history of civilization shows, that when 
these have been divorced, when the temple and the altar 
are only the resort of female votaries, and men monopolize 
the fruits of education, the highest reach is but barbarism 
glossed over. 

With such assurance of your principles and aims, the 
welcome we bear is deep and heartfelt. It is based upon 
harmony of views, upon esteem and confidence. 

To you, then, w^e owe an allegiance, in which we believe 
and which we cheerfully give. -Your efforts we mean to 



25 

second ; your hands to strengthen by a sincere good will 
and a hearty co-operation. 

In the several and special fields of science that now exist 
in the two departments for which I speak, and in such 
others as from time to time may be created, you may be 
sure that, so far as in us lies, the work assigned shall be 
done with fidelity and singleness of aim. And then, to its 
possessor and the public, a diploma of the University shall 
stand for mental discipline and scholarship, for true culture 
and refinement. 

It is not the number of buildings, nor wealth of endow- 
ment, nor multitude of professors, nor costly apparatus, nor 
heaps of books, (desirable as all these are) that will make 
this or any other institution of learning a success ; but the 
fact that it meets the highest educational needs of the 
country and the times. What is wanted here and now is 
breadth and thoroughness of instruction ; a liberalizing 
knowledge, diffused and brought within the reach of any 
young man or woman, who yearns for it, be they rich or 
poor. After this, the true power of an institution lies in the 
wisdom and ability, in the industry, tact and spirit, of those 
who fill its chairs and manage its concerns. 

To an unthinking observer, the foundations laid here, but 
a short time since, may seem small, and the resources quite 
inadequate. But we remember, (and the memory gives us 
faith) that human needs for human knowledge never fail ; 
that institutions of learning almost never die. Their widen- 
ing influence and their increasing resources are ever mu- 
tually reactive for stability and growth ; and the degree of 
these is measured by the wisdom and forecast of the 
founders. 

Take Oxford and Cambridge, in the Old Country, with 
almost nothing left to wish for in the way of endowment, 
appointments and prestige ; and yet prescription and mort- 
main, literally, the dead hands, of most old English bene- 
factions, have fettered and will forever fetter the scope and 



26 

use of all their resources. Quadrangle and cloister, and 
the varied forms of mediaeval architecture, and more than 
all, the traditions of the place, have become as rigid moulds 
to perpetuate the very means by which their ends are 
sought. They were established for the education of the 
few — a privileged class ; designed to pass the torch of learn- 
ing from century to century ; not to diffuse its light. 

For myself, as I look upon yonder hill, with its beauty of 
outline and breadth of view, in the center of a populous and 
wealthy State, a thriving city at its feet, where so many 
avenues of commerce and travel centre ; when I see a mass- 
ive " Hall of Languages," the earnest of future structures 
that may adorn that hill in coming years ; when I note the 
large denomination from whose thought and zeal it had its 
origin ; the comprehensive, flexible and liberal charter from 
which it takes its life and is to get its growth ; I see the 
germ of an institution which in its possible development may 
leave no room for envy of Oxford or Cambridge or any Old 
World seat of learning. 

Mr. Chancellor, we of the Colleges of Liberal Arts and 
of Medicine ; we, who bear the ark, now resting in tents, 
look forward hopefully to the temple that is to be. With 
prophetic vision we seem to view its fair proportions, the 
richness of its materials and the joy of its worship. With 
you, our leader, then ; our motto, " a broad and liberal cul- 
ture for the many ;" looking reverently toward the pillar 
of cloud and fire, ever before us ; we will not loiter in our 
camps, but boldly march, onward and onward. 



tm 0f ™!flc0titje 



On Behalf of the Colleges and Universities 
OF THE State, 



BY 



Rev. S. oilman BROWN, D. D., LL. D., 



President of Hamilton College. 




Mr. Chancellor and Gentlemen : — ■ 

It gives me much pleasure to be allowed some share in 
the interesting ceremonies of this day. Although not 
formally authorized to speak for the older Universities and 
Colleges of the State, I am sure I misrepresent no one of 
them in heartily welcoming you, Mr. Chancellor, to the fel- 
lowship of the scholars and educators of this opulent and 
powerful commonwealth. 

Let us congratulate you, sir, on having been brought to 
this field of congenial labor, where the duties will be so full 
of pleasure, where the responsibilities, though great, will be 
shared by able colleagues, where the hopes of a life of dig- 
nity and of eminent usefulness can hardly be disappointed. 

I congratulate the friends of the University on the dis- 
tinguished favor it has met with ; on the cordial marks of 
good-will manifested by deeds as well as by words, which it 
has received from this flourishing and enterprising city ; on 
the good promises which it holds forth in its faculties of in- 
struction ; on the hearty support which it receives from all 
those by whose energy and labor it ha.s been founded and 
thus far carried forward. 

I might well be surprised, if in this age of the world it 
were quite prudent to confess surprise at anything, to see 
how much has been accomplished in so short a time. Why, 
sir, it was only yesterday, as it seems to me, that the enter- 
prise was suggested, and to-day, buildings have been erected 



30 

or purchased. I had the pleasure this morning of inspect- 
ing your convenient and ample Hall of Languages, so far as 
it is accessible, and I came away with a feeling, I am afraid, 
too nearly resembling envy. Faculties gathered and organ- 
ized, students attending recitations and lectures, and all the 
complicated wheels of a great Institution are already moving 
almost as easily and noiselessly as if they had been mov- 
ing a thousand years. 

But. I do not forget that this institution stands under the 
special auspices of a body which knows no such thing as 
failure, with whom a consecrated life has ever been the first 
of duties, and self-devotion has ranked far above mere 
knowledge ; a body whose beneficent mission it has been to 
carry joy and hope to the poor and sad-hearted everywhere, 
and which yet has not forgotten that the sincerest faith is 
quite consistent with the most profound attainments, and 
that now, more than ever before, the best fruits of letters 
and science will be found none too ample for him whose life 
may be given to works of benevolence and charity ; a body 
whose name and history are an assurance that that which is 
highest in our nature, and ought to be the highest in our 
life, shall have the first honor in the University which it con- 
trols, which will give to science what belongs to science, and to 
faith what belongs to faith. 

To all the responsibilities and joys of this important po- 
sition, let me once more, sir, tender you a hearty welcome. 
If your experience should be like that of others occupying 
similar position, you will not be without your hours of anx- 
iety ; you may meet with many disappointments ; many 
plans may prove less successful than you had every reason 
to expect; you may find annoyances harder to be borne 
than some more serious difficulties ; you may be subjected 
to much weariness of body and of soul. The problems of 
education are not all solved. On some of them it may be 
your province to throw much light. For it becomes a wise 
educator, not carelessly to cast aside the old methods which 



31 

have stood the test of experience, nor hastily to accept new 
ones, often crude and harsh, but rather to assign to every 
scheme, if he can, its real value, to pick even from the 
bushel of chaff, its grain of precious wheat ; from the moun- 
tain of rubbish, its one glittering gem. 

It is encouraging to remember that, in labors like ours, 
there are pleasant surprises and unusual delights. We are 
v/orking, not with gross matter, but with ethereal elements. 
Success sometimes meets us when we had thought only of 
failure. What pleasure can be purer and more unalloyed 
than to see minds shaping themselves gradually under your 
plastic hand into forms of comeliness and strength, or, as it 
were, visibly opening on the instant into full activity and 
force, as the bud sometimes suddenly expands into the full 
blown flower, or the sun bursts with full effulgence from the 
cloud. Beside this, you will always be cheered by the sense 
of important duties well done ; by the grateful recollection 
of the many who will carry your principles and your lessons 
with them into the world ; the many who at these fountains 
first tasted the sweet waters of intellectual and spiritual 
life. 



«aiiflnra!ittfl Jbdilrjej 



OF 



Bishop JESSE T. PECK, D. D., 
President of the Board of Trustees, 



WITH the reply of 



CHANCELLOR WINCHELL. 




Bishop Peck then addressed Dr. Winchell, as follows : — 
Honored Sir : — 

It is with no ordinary pleasure that I address you to-day 
as the Chancellor-elect of Syracuse University and Presi- 
dent-elect of the College of Liberal Arts. 

You have been selected from a small number of most 
worthy and distinguished educators, as in our judgment, 
best suited to the high functions of these responsible offices. 
Your fame as a scientist and scholar of distinguished breadth 
and progress, has passed beyond the great country of your 
birth and heroic efforts, and has become conspicuous 
amongst the savans and hard-working men of Europe. But 
even this, you will allow us to say, would not alone have 
given you the representative position into which you are 
this day to be inaugurated. You are to be the chief exe- 
cutive officer of a University established "for the promotion 
of Christian learning." Under the auspices of the church of 
God, by the sacrifices and struggles of Christian citizens and 
other philanthropic people, who revere the government of 
the Infinite One, this University has been founded, with the 
distinct idea of offering to the young people of the land the 
highest advantages of education, under the genial and vital- 
izing influence of our holy Christianity, hoping to add 
something to the forces which are to produce a class of 
scholars, imbued with the " wisdom which cometh down 
from above," and strong in the consciousness of God's 



36 

sustaining and directing grace. If, therefore, in the pursuit 
of the highest science, you had taken your position with 
Compte and Fichte and Darwin, in " the worship of the 
creature more than the Creator," instead of with Newton, 
Hugh Miller and Hitchcock, rising " through nature up to 
nature's God," we should have passed you mournfully by 
and sought our representative man in some truer, more 
logical mind, whose teachings and life would have been 
faithful to the noble and really divine ideas in which our 
University had its origin. 

Let it, therefore, be known, here and elsewhere, that one 
of America's distinguished naturalists and most thoroughly 
progressive thinkers takes his position this day at the head of 
one of the most powerful educational movements of the age, 
because he has found reasons in science, both pure and ap- 
plied, for lofty Christian faith, and a distinctly pronounced 
loyalty to the teachings of Divine Revelation. 

You have noticed, my honored brother, that a chair is 
ordained, naturally furnishing one of the lecture fields of the 
Chancellorship, entitled the " Professorship of Evangelical 
Christianity," the true meaning of which is that Syracuse 
University steps out boldly in response to the challenge of 
" Philosophy falsely so called," and a system of education 
dis-tinctly ignoring religion, and asrerts the humble depend- 
ence of all learning upon God and his blessing, and the disci- 
pleship of students to the wisdom of the great Teacher. 
It will take its place in the broad, deep currents of the 
Chris* ian life, as "Evangelical," in distinction from sectarian 
bigotry, naturalistic Deism, rationalistic Pantheism, and a 
dead formalism ; and, using the word " Evangelical " in a 
rational sense, it will bring out distinctly the religion of 
the Evangelists in the power of its own divinely energized 
propagandism, moving out through all the learned profes- 
sions into all the world, to fulfill the scholar's mission of 
enlightenment to men, and redemption from sin to the 
highest power of love on earth and eternal life in heaven. 



37 

Then let it be understood, as the meaning of this new pro- 
fessorship, that we intend to deny that cdiLcation is the final 
cause of education, and to exalt all learning to the highest, 
purest working philanthrophy known amongst men. 

You will have noticed the name of another chair which 
will hereafter direct your attention "to one of the advanced 
ideas governing the formation of this University. Some 
one of your colleagues will in due time give instruction in 
" the laws of civil libertv and the duties and rio^hts of citi- 
zens ;" for the Syracuse University will recognize the dis- 
orders of civil and political activities, which in all lands 
struggling for liberty, corrupt the body politic, rob the peo- 
ple of their rights and property, and demoralize whole 
nations by the power of private and public immorality. 
Young men are to be here taught to understand, and 
vindicate, and use the high franchises of a free citizenship 
in a way to reach the disorders of society, defeat the 
schemes of demagogues and enforce the rights of all men. 

You have, no doubt, noticed that it is intended here 
to give due rank and consideration to the old classic learn- 
ing of historical scholarship, and to what has been termed 
the new education. Syracuse University m^dins firmness in 
holding on to all that is valuable in the grand old past, and 
progress in all that is new and vigorous in adjustment to 
this and the coming age. I deem it, therefore, singularly 
fortunate that we inaugurate to-day a man who distinctly 
represents the old learning and the new, and who is known 
to be with the boldest advance of modern thought, and 
broad enough to take in the past as well as the future. 

I may also remind you, honored sir, that the plan of this 
organization is peculiar, in the fact that it does not ask you 
and your colleagues to make a University of a College. On 
the contrary, it requires the University to make Colleges. 
It proposes a natural, complete and easy division of labon 
The College of the Liberal Arts, already begins the reali- 
zation of our plans. It is to be, and is, a sub-graduate 



38 

college of the highest order and widest range. The College 
of Physicians and Surgeons has just graduated its first class, 
and has a good field and high prospects for the future. 

The organization of the Faculty of the University will 
now devolve upon you — a Faculty which will, as soon as 
may be, officially determine the cttrricida of the several Col- 
leges, heretofore necessarily provisional. You will then be 
in position to receive the recommendations for degrees 
which will come up from the Colleges, and otherwise super- 
vise interests belonging to the whole University. 

May I say in conclusion, you have not been called to pre- 
side over an institution already made and endowed. If I 
■judge rightly, such an institution would have called to you 
in vain. You are a young man. It is now exactly the right 
time for you to enter upon your great life mission. God 
has furnished you well for it. An enterprise to engage your 
intellect and heart, must have its great future to make. If 
its heroic struggles were over, and its days of ease had come, 
it would be no place for you or your noble colleagues. Its 
fresh and flexible youth, its demands for millions of money, 
with the great public to educate up to the required standard 
of munificent giving, the certainty of heavy and almost 
crushing burdens to bear — these are the facts which have 
found a response in your noblest manhood, and brought 
you here. While I mourn the order given me to depart to 
a distant field, which must deprive me of the coveted 
honor of standing by your side, in these successive strug- 
gles, it gives me the strongest satisfaction to feel that the 
great office which has been waiting for its man, is to be 
filled by a spirit vigorous, brave and true, which will gather 
heroism from the trials, and exactions of ofQce, and strength 
from the pressure of burdens too heavy for any man of rash 
self-confidence, or timid, unsteady purpose. 

It now only remains for me in accordance with instruc- 
tions received from my colleagues in the Board of Trustees, 
formally to invest you with the high office to which you 



39 

have been called. The symbols of this office I now present 
to you. 

First, the Holy Bible, which contains the exact defini- 
tions of the true and the right, which are to produce the 
spirit and control the labor of your administration. 

Next, I give you the keys, which will place all the build- 
ings and property of the University under your charge, and 
symbolize the authority vested in you and your colleagues 
to determine the conditions upon which students of all 
grades may enjoy its privileges. 

Finally, I present you this seal, which will authorize you, 
in accordance with the laws, to send out into the world those 
who have met the required conditions, with the official en- 
dorsement of the University. 

By the authority of the Board of Trustees, I hereby de- 
clare you, Alexander Winchell, to be duly inaugurated 
Chancellor of Syracuse University and President of the 
College of Liberal Arts. May the blessing of God sustain 
and direct you ! 



To this address Chancellor Winchell responded as fol- 
lows : 

Mr. President, and Honored and Beloved Bishop : — 

I accept the responsibility which you have formally en- 
trusted to my keeping. I do it, however, with diffidence 
and a distrust of my personal ability to acquit my self accord- 
ing to your high ideal. 

I shall have frequent occasion to seek the counsel of ///;// 
whose ideas permeate every ramification of the University 
organization. 

I shall need to depend upon the wisdom and forbearance 
of my greatly esteemed colleagiLes, whose earnestness and 
unselfishness in the service of the University, have amount- 
ed to a personal consecration. 



40 

I shall need the respect and affection of the sitidents, whoso, 
voices of cheer I have heard to-day, mingling with the 
other congratulations. 

I shall need the approbation and co-operation of the 
Ahimni, who have accorded me, already, their words of wel- 
come and support. 

I shall need the sympathy and fraternization of the 
laborers in the cause of Education tliroughout the State • 
and I count it an omen of much significance, that I am 
permitted to-day to listen to phrases of welcome from one of 
their most distinguished representatives. 

I shall need the forbearance of the Board of Trustees, the 
courtesies and confidence of the public, and the sympathy 
and material support of the generous friends of higher 
learning everywhere. 

More than all these aids I shall need the wisdom which 
comes not of man. 

I have studied the organic features of the University ; I 
have admired its breadth and depth and symmetry ; I have 
remarked the broad seal of Christianity, so deeply enstamped 
upon its front ; I have noted the earnest utterances of the 
Christian scholars who have heretofore spoken for the Uni- 
versity. Upon the strong foundations which you and your 
associates have laid, I shall labor to rear a structure which 
will attain as nearly as possible, to the beauty, the grandeur 
and the beneficence of the ideal you have so fondly 
cherished. 

And may God be my helper, 



I 



IIMII 



OF 



CHANCELLOR WINCHELL. 




THE MODERN UNIVERSITY. 

A wise custom devolves upon the newly-installed execu- 
tive of a College or University, the duty of presenting an 
exposition of the general views and principles which may 
be expected to influence his administration. In conform- 
ing to this custom, I propose to set forth my conception of 
the Modern University, and to indicate in a general way, the 
things requisite to the realization of the ideal, in the char- 
acter of the Syracuse University. 

I. The Idea of the University. 

Considered in its historical development^ the Idea of the 
University has not attained fully to the requirements of 
modern thought and civilization. This is but saying that 
supply waits on demand ; accomplished fact lags behind 
originative concept. It may be profitable, nevertheless, to 
glance, at the outset, at the historical idea of the University. 

In its fundamental sense, the University is a system of ap- 
pliances for teaching and advancing all learning. Institu- 
tions have existed for more than three thousand years, 
which fulfilled these general requisites ; though the name 
appears to have been first applied to the University of 
Paris, in the year 1206. The varying factors in the histor- 
ical university, have been the quantity of leaguing extant, 
and the nature of the appliances for disseminating it. 



44 

No doubt exists, that the Hght of learning arose, Hke the 
sun, in the east. In ancient Persia, Chaldea and China, 
were institutions of learning of no mean importance, as the 
astronomical records, inscriptions and architectural remains 
of those countries testify. Their learned men, however, 
were sacred men. Professor and priest were one. In Egypt, 
as is better understood, the priests established schools in the 
temples, and, in their esoteric teaching, expounded the 
science of the times to the favored few. Among these, 
were pilgrims from Asia Minor and the islands and pen- 
insula of Greece. Egyptian learning was incorporated with 
the results of sturdy Grecian speculation ; and, in the 
cities of Greece, distinguished scholars gathered around 
them pupils from many lands. The great problems of the 
Universe confronted the Greek thinker, as they confront the 
philosopher of to-day, and eager pupils flocked to hear his 
exposition of the "first principle" and "ground " of all ex- 
istence. Thales, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Heraclitus, 
Anaximander, Leucippus^ Democritus, Pythagoras, Par- 
menides, Zeno of Elea, are the honored names of great 
schoolmasters of the pre-Socratic ages, who grappled with 
the highest problems of nature, and strove to lead their 
pupils, through an interpretation of the phenomena of na- 
ture, to an apprehension of that intelligent unity and First 
Cause from which all existence springs. Pythagoras, with 
his circle of disciples around him, has been called by the 
historian Dahlmann, " the oldest university." ■ 

I need but to advert to Socrates, the quizzing pedagogue 
of Athens ; Plato, the eloquent lecturer of the Academy 
which he founded ; Aristotle, the encyclopaedic master of 
the Lyceum, to remind my hearers that real universities ex- 
isted in the palmy days of Greece, in which master-spirits 
expounded the higher learning of their times. 

At Alexandria arose the first High School founded by the 
patronage of the State. The " Museum " was planted by 
Ptolemy Soter, and grew, under successive kings, to the 



45 

magnitude and worth of a real university. Here was 
gathered a Hbrary rich in the sciences and literatures of 
Greece, Rome, Persia, India, Babylonia, Phoenecia and 
Ethiopia ; and its numerous professors gave instruction in 
the philosophy of all the schools, in mathematics, astronomy, 
geography, medicine, anatomy, natural history, grammar, 
criticism, poetry, history, and both Jewish and Christian 
theology. Here flourished Pantaenus, the first professor of 
scientific theology ; here, the authors of the Septuagint 
version of our Sacred Scriptures ; here, Philo, Josephus, 
the evangelist Mark, Athenagoras, Clement and Origen. 

At Rome, the "Athenaeum," founded by Hadrian, on the 
Capitoline Hill, became both the university of the Latin 
race, and the mother of the "Imperial Schools" established 
in all the chief cities of the Roman dominion. Constantine 
founded a university at Constantinople ; and schools less 
celebrated sprang up in all the principal cities of the east. 

The downfall of the Western Empire signalized the 
eclipse of learning. The schools that had flourished 
throughout the Roman realm, languished or became extinct ; 
and science and literature withdrew to cloisters and ca- 
thedrals. Now, schools of the ecclesiastical sort sprang up 
from the ruins of the Imperial Schools of the Roman period ; 
and the monasteries became the conservatories of the learn- 
ing of antiquity. The Benedictines, in the sixth, seventh and 
eighth centuries, were the chief custodians of the interests oi 
education. Through their enlightened aid and co-operation, 
Charlemagne organized that system of monastic, cathedral 
and foundation schools, out of which have grown, in process 
of time, the great schools and universities of Germany and 
France. But the sad decline of learning is apparent when 
we contrast the curricula of these schools with the range of 
science taught in the Museum at Alexandria, in the first 
three centuries of our era. The instruction in the lower 
schools was confined to reading, singing, reckoning and 
writing. The studies of the higher schools were divided 



46 

into the Trivium and Quadrivmm. In the former, the stu- 
dent pursued grammar, logic and rhetoric ; in the latter, 
arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. The studies of 
the Trivium and Quadrivium were styled "the seven free 
arts." 

The "Palace School," organized by the Emperor, became 
the forerunner, if it was not the germ, of the University of 
Paris, the oldest educational institution which has been per- 
petuated to our times in the character of a university. The 
first of the modern universities was developed, therefore, 
from an ecclesiastical school ; and its range of instruction 
was, accordingly, limited, at first, to philosophy and theolo- 
gy. Subsequently, medicine and the canon law were added. 
The classification, which had originally been according to 
the nations represented among its students, was now (1260) 
based upon the nature of the subjects taught ; and about 
this time, the Faculties of Theology, Medicine and Canon 
Law assumed a distinct existence. 

The University of Bologna, which, in order of time, stands 
next, seems to have grown out of a school of jurisprudence, 
instead of an ecclesiastical institution. Properly speaking, 
this "university" was a college of law, or rather two separate 
colleges distinguished solely by the nativity of their pupils. 
Subsequently, however, a "University of Arts" was estab- 
lished ; and still later, (1362) a "University of Theology." 

About the same time — the end of the eleventh century — 
a school at Oxford, England, whose history, it is thought, may 
be traced back to the reign of Alfred, began to expand into 
the proportions of a university. About a century later, the 
University of Cambridge took form from another scholastic 
institution. In these universities, the co-ordinate bodies, or 
colleges, were not the "nations," as in the University of Bo- 
logna and the early history of the University of Paris ; 
nor the several Faculties, as in the later history of the Uni- 
versity of Paris and all the German universities, but the 
bodies of teachers and students gathered in the several 



47 

halls or buildings. Nor was Ihe English university-idea as 
broad and truthful as that of the French and Germans ; for, 
while in the Continental institutions, the university embodied 
and consolidated all the "nations" and all the "faculties," 
the English held, and still hold, that the university is founded 
in the arts ; and that the faculty and students in arts consti- 
tute the university. 

The first of the German Universities, founded at 
Prague, in 1348, and the second, at Vienna, 1365, discarded, 
at the outset, the accidental distinctions of nations and lodg- 
ings, and adopted a classification according to sciences and 
faculties ; giving the university, in its body and soul, the 
completer solidarity demanded by their deeper insight into 
the unity of truth. 

The oldest American universities have grown out of col- 
leges founded as schools for the clergy. They were mod- 
eled, in their origin, after the English colleges of Oxford 
and Cambridge ; but they never followed their prototypes 
in the multiplication of Faculties of Arts ; and the broad 
university idea has been present in sufficient force to affiliate 
and assimilate the subsequently added faculties of Medicine, 
Theology and Law as well as higher faculties of science 
and the arts. 

The historical idea of the University in respect to its con- 
trol, is that of a close, independent corporation, electing its 
own chief and subordinate officers, and determining the laws 
and conditions of its own being. Universities were not pre- 
ordained nor preconceived by either secular or ecclesiastical 
authority. They grew, as language has grown. Strong 
intellects gathered pupils about them by a sort of concre- 
tionary attraction, and the body was permitted by the State 
to regulate its own existence. In the University of Paris, 
the teachers constituted the corporate body, which exercised 
control of the pupils. In the University of Bologna, the 
students were the corporate body, and elected their own 
presiding officers and professors. It is worthy of note that 



48 

the ancient idea of the University recognized no authority 
outside of the teachers and their pupils ; and, in the European 
universities, these traditional franchises have been largely, 
and, I believe, wisely, respected, even to the present day. 

In those universities where classification according: to 
nations prevailed, a head or "Proctor" was elected by each 
"nation," and a "Rector" of the university was chosen either 
by the proctors or by "electors" designated for that purpose. 
Where classification according to "faculties" existed, the 
head of the faculty was styled the "Dean." In the English 
universities, the general officer was styled the "Chancellor." 
In the universities of America, the head of a faculty is 
generally styled the "Dean," if the co-ordinate faculties 
have come into existence ; if not, he is generally known as 
"President." The chief executive of a university organiza- 
tion is styled "President," "Chancellor" or "Rector." 

In the German universities, the assembly of all the facul- 
ties was styled the "great council." In some American 
universities, it is known as the "academic council," or the 
"senate." The "lesser council," among the Germans, was 
constituted by the deans of the four faculties, and with these, 
in some of the universities, "assessors" from all the facul- 
ties, or from the Faculty of Law alone. 

The other variable factor in the historical idea of the Uni- 
versity, is the sphere of human knowledge, and the appre- 
ciation of it by the learned. 

We remark, first of all, however, certain fundamental 
judgments which have found expression in all ages. First, 
the Divine has always been made the object of search and 
research. In the Oriental and Egyptian schools, theology 
embraced all learning. With the Greek philosopher, the 
attempt to reach the ultimate cause of all things, gave birth 
to the sciences. Thales thought he had found the ulti- 
mate principle in zvater ; Anaximenes sought it in air; Her- 
aclitus of Ephesus, in Jire: Anaximander, in t/ie infinite 
{to aTTEipov) ; Leucippus, in atoms and space ; Democritus, 



49 

in atoms and the vacinim ; Pythagoras, in the principle sym- 
boHzed by mimbers ; Anaxagoras, in mind ; while Socrates 
and Plato distinctly recognized a Supreme Intelligence as the 
first cause of all things, and made his being and attributes, 
and the consequent relations of human agents, the themes 
of all their discourses. Plato philosophizing is Plato preach- 
ing. Whether in the Academy or the Lyceum at Athens, the 
Athenaeum at Rome, or the Museum at Alexandria, the 
philosopher aimed to penetrate to thc.t ultimate datum which 
he felt must underlie all the changeful phenomena of sense^ 
and which the soul of man spontaneously relegates to primor- 
dial, divine energy. When the phenomena which reveal the 
outworking of first principles, had been so studied and 
classified, in search of their cause, as to constitute a series 
of systems of facts, they began to be studied/^^r their own 
sakes, as material of the sciences ; and the formal study of 
divinity remained simply a co-ordinate science. Thus ap- 
peared, at Alexandria, a well-defined theological college. 
During the dark ages, while the sciences of nature fell into 
neglect, the soul of man held fast to the science of God ; 
and out of this sprang, as before, a new ramification of the 
secular sciences. The historical idea of the University, 
therefore, recognizes God, and recognizes Him as an object of 
study. 

Secondly, the science of Mathematics has always found 
place in the teachings of the University and the lower 
schools. I scarcely need make citations in proof of this. 

Thirdly, aesthetic Art has always found a generous re- 
cognition. Music had a place in the systems of Pythagoras, 
Plato and most of the ancient philosophers and schools. 
Singing was taught in the lower schools of the Middle Ages, 
and music in the quadrivium of the higher schools. The 
science of music still retains its prestige in the universities 
of the Old World. Similar statements may be made in re- 
spect to the art of poetry. 

Fourthly, Gi^ammar, or the science and art of languages. 



• so 

has had a place since very early times ; while Logic d.nd Met- 
aphysics, since the epoch of Plato and Aristotle, have com- 
manded the full consideration of the conservators and ex- 
pounders of learning. 

These few subjects, however, with slight variations and 
additions, have afforded the traditional staple of instruction 
in all colleges of the liberal arts, since the decay of the Al- 
exandrian schools. To whatever extent the university cur- 
riculum has been expanded, it has, until very recent times, ex- 
posed marked deficiencies in the sciences, arts and profes- 
sions which especially characterize, and, to a great extent, 
create our modern civilization. I shall proceed, therefore, 
after this glance at the past, to set forth the idea of the uni- 
versity considered as the outgrowth and product of modern 
thought. 

It is a trite remark that the achievements of the intellect 
of modern times, have so extended the field of human 
knowledge and activity that the learning of ancient and 
mediaeval times seems almost insignificant. Systems of 
truth cajDable of evolution from the data of consciousness — 
like the principles of psychology, ethics, metaphysics, math- 
ematics, poetry, music, were wrought out in a great degree 
of perfection, even by the ancients ; but systems of truth 
based upon an observation of ^;r/^r;2^/ phenomena, are almost 
wholly of modern birth. Such, especially, are the sciences 
of chemistry, zoology, botany, geology, archaeology, anthro- 
pology, ethnology. This means that a university cast in the 
mould of the Middle Ages, is no longer a university, if it does 
not expand with this expanse of human learning. 

Another pre-eminent contrast between the mediaeval and 
the modern ages is in the ministration of knowledge to the 
material wants of the race. In this work the modern sci- 
ences have revealed capabilities to which the old subjective 
sciences could lay no claim. Even the science of medicine, 
until modern times, was little more than a system of em- 
pirical formulae, founded on a very inadequate knowledge of 



51 

human anatomy and physiology, of the nature of disease, the 
action of medicines, or of the essential principles of the 
medicines themselves. Modern research has laid a scien- 
tific foundation underneath this profession, and rendered it 
doubly worthy to stand as one of the learned professions. 
In the meantime, it has added to the list of the learned pro- 
fessions. The science and art of civil engineering consti- 
tute a profession as truly learned, as indispensably useful, 
and almost as extensively patronized as either of the learned 
professions of the mediaeval universities. Something simi- 
lar may be said of military engineering, of mechanical and 
of mining engineering. The science and art of chemical 
analysis constitute another learned profession, which finds 
liberal employment in answering the demands of modern in- 
dustries. The science and art of paedagogy have' become a 
learned profession, which has already called into existence 
its appropriate colleges in the form of normal schools. 

These citations serve to illustrate my meaning when I 
state that the greater portion of the sciences, arts and in- 
dustries which characterize our modern civilization, have 
come into existence since the historical mould of the Uni- 
versity was cast. The soul of the University retains its 
identity, and should do so ; but its body needs to be renewed 
with "the progress of the suns," It should continue to ex- 
pand itself sufficiently to take in the enlarged mass of hu- 
man knowledge, so that he who is a pd.i:t of the University 
need not separate himself to become an expert in the princi- 
pies of any science, art or profession. 

These remarks, as will be understood, involve some stric- 
ture upon the older universities of Europe and America, and 
a reminder of the opportunities which lie before the new 
ones. Tradition seeks to make us all its slaves. What our 
ancestors planned and adopted at Oxford and Cambridge, 
our pilgrim fathers deemed worthy to be transplanted in 
New England. What the pilgrim fathers organized and set 
in motion, their descendants find it revere 'it to perpetuate. 



52 

Be the cry of the Hving age ever so loud, they are still list- 
ening to the cry of the ages of Charlemagne and Frederick 
the Great Precedent makes law ; but changed circumstan- 
ces can unmake it. An enterprising and independent peo- 
ple will sometimes shake off the shackles of tradition. So 
we have done in the founding of new universities. How 
much nf American progress is traceable to the results of the 
spirit of emigration, few have considered. In all communi- 
ties are men progressive and men conservative. The con- 
servative majority perpetuate outgrown institutions ; the pro- 
gressive minority are selected out by the spirit of emigra- 
tion to constitute majorities in new states. These men rev- 
erence antiquity, but they reverence more, truth, harmony, 
utility. Without throwing the old away, they are ready to 
assimilate the new. So we must not be surprised to find 
the noblest features of an advanced civilization in regions 
which, a few years ago, were upon "the frontier." New 
England need feel no chagrin if some of the newer schools, 
colleges and universities of New York and the Great West 
demonstrate a more facile adaptation to the demands of the 
age. I feel fully justified in the assertion that the Universi- 
ty of Michigan stands pre-eminent in its methods of reject- 
ing the effete and selecting the useful in the educational sys- 
tems of all ages and countries, and assimilating with this, all 
the new ideas suggested by the cautious radicalism of healthy 
progress. I hope, with you, sir, we shall be alive to the no- 
ble opportunity to apply this selective, appreciative and 
adaptive policy, in the organic shaping of our University. 

The solidarity of the sciences, the Modern University recog- 
nizes as an all-underlying principle. No science or profess- 
ion can be properly studied, in its violation. Each, pursued 
in its relations, affiliates itself with all the others, giving and 
receiving sympathy, and converging ever toward the sim- 
plicity of unity. There is no specialist but can pass better 
judgments in his specialty by a knowledge of its relations 
to cognate learning. The physicist only knows how to ap- 



53 

predate moral and intuitive evidence, when he has gone be- 
yond his sphere as a speciaUst, and studied the grounds of 
all belief — the grounds of knowledge and belief even in the 
physical world. The physician will select his remedies with 
most discretion and safety, who understands the natural af- 
finities which group the products of the materia medica, 
and the modes of action of their essential principles. This 
knowledge is drawn from botany, chemistry and physiology. 
That legislator or judge will arrive at the wisest and most 
enduring decisions, who has the most extensive knowledge 
of history and political science, and the deepest insight into 
the ethical intuitions of man. All the sciences, arts and pro- 
fessions cluster around the heart of the University. 

The catholicity of learning binds the University to the 
schools below. They work for and with each other. The 
University furnishes brains for the High School ; the High 
School supplies blood to the University. This unity has been 
sagaciously, but somewhat feebly and inadequately grasped 
by that loose organization known as the "University of the 
State of New York"— a piece of machinery which betrays 
an inspiration which may some day be realized — the strict 
concatenation, and mutual adaptation, and serial adjustment 
of the various educational institutions of the State. 

While the University extends its hospitality to every sci- 
ence and the theory of every art and profession, it is not pre- 
tended that every College of the Liberal Arts is bound to 
occupy as broad a field as the University — even with the 
"three learned professions" left out. A college consists of 
a faculty for giving instruction in a system of closely cog-' 
nate. subjects, all clustering around a central idea. The 
University is the complete circle of colleges. Ten colleges 
of one kind do not constitute a university. But, if a college 
— say of the Liberal Arts — determines to limit itself to a 
single faculty, it has as good a right to existence and the ex- 
ercise of its functions as if it were a university. The very 
attempt to make it a university might greatly impair its use- 



54 

fulness. But the moment it introduces into its curriculum, 
studies in jurisprudence, engineering or any other profes- 
sion, it begins to assume the university character. What 
constitutes the proper curriculum of this college, is one of 
the mooted questions of the day, I have no reserve in 
stating my own opinions. Cidtitre is the central idea of the 
College of Liberal Arts. It teaches those subjects whose 
study and acquisition will be useful to all alike. Formerly, 
the range of those subjects embraced only the ancient class- 
ics, mathematics, logic, rhetoric and metaphysics, with the 
addition, perhaps of music and poetry. While conservative 
educators are disposed to retain these as the chief means of 
modern culture, in my own opinion, the range of ''liberal 
arts," viewed merely as a means of mltiwey might be con- 
siderably extended. The modern languages, especially the 
German, afford a species of culture similar to that obtained 
from the Latin and Greek. I do not assert that they pos- 
sess equal value. The Natural Sciences afford a species of 
culture not yielded by any of the liberal arts of antiquity. 
Moreover, it is the very culture which fits the mind to seize 
and carry forward the movements of modern society. I re- 
cord the opinion, therefore, that modern languages and the 
leading natural sciences ought to stand side by side with the 
liberal arts of antiquity, viewed merely as means of mental 
culture. 

But culture does not complete the modern idea of the 
College of Liberal Arts. Its object is both cidtiire and 
knowledge. There is a certain round of knowledge as essen- 
tial to every educated man, as the traditional round of cul- 
ture. Men whose education is concluded with the curricu- 
lum for the bachelor's degree, stand in urgent need of a cer- 
tain complement of information as well as discipline, to fit 
them for winning success. Because the College of Liberal 
Arts has expended its best efforts in teaching the arts which 
were liberal in the fifteenth century, instead of the nine- 
teenth, it has lost much of its ancient prestige. Young 



55 

men have turned away from the institution where they got 
only culture, to the college of engineering or technology or 
agriculture, where, if the institution were true to its name, 
they got only knowledge, and little or no culture. I make 
no choice between the alternatives. I have long maintained 
that the College of Liberal Arts, in an age whose progress 
consists so largely in the subjection of the material world, 
ought to furnish the pupil with the knowledge requisite for 
non-professional life, as well as the culture. 

The range of studies affording culture to all, and knowl- 
edge to those who seek it, is so wide that we have consider- 
able room for selection. After the student has attained a 
certain degree of advancement in his course, he might be 
permitted to elect his studies with a reference to his own 
tastes and endowments, and so as to answer rather the ends 
of culture or knowledge, according as either is uppermost in 
his aims. But there is danger of carrying the optional sys- 
tem too far. Immature youths should not be left to their 
own caprices. With discretion in this direction, the curric- 
ulum of the College of Liberal Arts, it seems to me, ought 
to be so enlarged and liberalized that every young person 
seeking only a liberal education, should be permitted, in the 
advanced stages of his course, to make elections suited to 
graduate him with such an outfit of discipline and informa- 
tion, as should qualify him to pursue any non-professional 
calling of his choice. 

It is a fundamental demand of the modern University, 
that the data of science be studied in their integrity. One 
class of phenomena constitutes as valid a basis for general- 
ization as another. The importance of the generalization 
may be greater or less. We are as solemnly bound to col- 
late and study the phenomena of consciousness as the phe- 
nomena of matter ; as solemnly bound to regard the relig- 
ious and ethical phenomena of consciousness, as the intel- 
lectual. The facts of the moral and religious history of 
mankind, constitute material for a philosophy as "positive" 



56 

as the record of battles and sieges and dynasties, or the re- 
actions of substances in the test-tube of the chemist. The 
data upon which a metaphysical inquiry proceeds, must be 
treated with the same respect as the data of a physical inves- 
tigation. However impossible it may be for the physicist 
to apprehend the metaphysics of his physics, the University 
is bound to protect the miCtaphysician who does apprehend 
it and assert it. The university takes no part in the con- 
troversy respecting the relative value of the sciences and 
the classics, as sources of knowledge and culture. It opens 
its hospitable doors to both, and permits each person to de- 
cide for himself between the two. 

The University tolerates no exclusive dogmatic teaching. 
Its chosen end is absolute truth ; its chosen method is free 
discussioft. It fears nothing which can be proven true. It 
holds no cherished doctrine that it will not have searched 
and scrutinized through and through— tested by every or- 
deal — exposed to the light of every science. Least of all, 
will it permit unreasoning religious dogma to disrespect the 
autonomy of personal conviction. Truth does not take its 
color from sect. Sect may assume the hue of truth. Truth 
is one to Greek or barbarian. Christian or infidel ; and he 
who weaves in his creed the greatest amount of truth and 
the least amou'ht of error, will be the champion in the final 
conflict. 

The modern University knows no distinction of persons. 
This, indeed, is the historical idea. From the very dawn of 
university life, the great teachers have been waited upon by 
the disciples of various nations. Nor was race, or color, or 
caste, or sex a bar to the most generous privileges. Our 
age can never make it a boast that it first opened the doors 
of its universities to women. Not only did the schools of anti- 
quity, and the colleges of the middle ages admit women as pu- 
pils, but, by recognizing the natural sequel of this, they 
elected women to professors' chairs. The wife and daughter 
of Pythagoras were teachers in his school of philosophy in 



.57 

Italy. Hypatia filled the chair of philosophy in the Platonic 
school at Alexandria. In the University of Bologna, chairs 
were filled by Helena Cornaro, Maria Agnesi, Clotilda Tam- 
broni and others. 

The ideal of the modern University yields answer to the 
question, "who holds the nditwrdil right to found a U7iiversity!' 
This right rests wherever the want and the ability co-exist 
— be it in the solitary philosopher, like Plato, or Epicurus, 
or Abelard, shining as a beacon in the midst of darkness, 
and compelling the world to pay homage to his genius ; or 
an emperor like Ptolemy, or Hadrian or Gustavus Adolphus ; 
or a doctor of jurisprudence, like Irnerius of Bologna ; or a 
munificent patron of learnmg from the walks of private life, 
like Vassar ; or a republican state, like Michigan ; or a patron 
of learning joining hands with the state, like Cornell ; or a 
dozen clergymen bringing their armfulls of books to con- 
secrate to the foundation, as at Yale ; or a great ecclesiasti- 
cal body, as at Trinity, Rochester or Syracuse. 

Learning and rehgion have always manifested a marked 
and ineradicable spirit of affiliation. Viewed in its subjec- 
tive character, philosophy is a seeking after the first cause 
— the final explanation — of things — that is, God. Science 
gives us intermediate causes — explanations which still de- 
mand deeper explanation ; and he who thinks that science, 
as such, leads us to real causes, may scorn philosophy and 
ignore God. But deeper thinking — the mastery of the 
philosophy which underlies science, discloses the ultimate 
cause of causes — intelligent, infinite, eternal. This was the 
faith of the philosophers of antiquity — all save Socrates, 
who pronounced the search for the first cause vain, and 
turned his attention to the field of practical ethics. With 
the ancients, all philosophy was theology ; and so intimately 
was divine existence connected with the phenomena of the 
universe that, with the early Greeks, cosmogony was the- 
ogony. History and ethnology show that the thoughtful 
men of all nations and ages have been the theologians of 



58 

tbeir times. I wish, in passing, to emphasize the thought. 
A knowledge of any truth is a knowledge of God's truth — 
God's thought ; and a search for truth is a feeling after the 
mind and will of Deity. All science infallibly leads us to- 
ward God. As I have just said, it is not the office of science 
to lead to God ; and when the devotee of science stops 
short of finding God, you pronounce his science "infidel." 
Ah, good friend, that is blasphemy unconsciously uttered. 
There is no infidel science. God made science. Infidelity 
grows out of the spirit and method of the pursuit of science, 
and the perversity of the human heart. If the physicist is 
not led through his science to God, it is the fault of the in- 
dividual. Let him learn that he has not yet reached the 
bourne of ultimate inquiry ; then he will recognize matter 
and force generated, pervaded, energized and controlled by 
omnipresent mind. 

This spirit of affiliation marks also the whole history of 
learning. Religion has been studied in the schools of the 
world ; and even when secular learning died out from the 
memories of men, Christianity clung to it in the cloisters 
and abbeys, and nursed its life, and sent it forth again, under 
better auspices, to enlighten and bless the world. And thus 
it has happened that our grand modern civilization, which 
is but the outcome of the sciences propagated and fostered 
under Christian care, is, historically and pre-eminently, as 
you have intimated, sir, a Christian civilization. This foster- 
ing care has never been intermitted. Our New England 
fathers cherished learning for Christianity's sake ; and from 
the dawn of college life in Massachusetts, Christian bodies 
have been busy planting the germs of colleges and univer- 
sities in every State of the New World. Christianity seems 
almost to hold an ancient prescriptive right to ally itself 
with the initiation of educational enterprises of every 
grade. 

As between the prospects of a university founded under 
distinctly religious auspices and one founded or sustained by 



59 

the State, I feel inclined to the opinion that the former has 
most to expect. Not that the State possesses less ability, 
but that the religious body possesses more intelligence and 
a better will. A State-university is at the mercy of the 
caprices of a legislature. A university planted under the 
auspices of a powerful religious body, rests in the affections, 
the intelligence and the enterprise of its representatives. 
These representatives are the clergy and select laity. Now, 
when I place a body thus constituted by the side of an 
average State legislature, and ask myself from which body I 
can most reasonably expect a reverence for learning, large 
views and incorrupt legislation, I do not hesitate to bestow 
my confidence upon the Christian body. Add to this con- 
sideration, the closer interest which unites the members of 
a religious body with the enterprises which they have es- 
poused, and the pride which it is natural to feel in the en- 
largement and success of such enterprises, and it seems to 
me that good reasons are found for building better hopes on 
a university which a powerful ecclesiastical body has planted 
and become sponsor for, than can be entertained of one 
launched forth upon the languid sympathy of the great 
public, with no great humanitarian interest warming around 
it, to cherish it and rear it. 

But all this does not imply that a university or college 
thus planted and nurtured must be rnaintained in the direct 
and exclusive interest of the ecclesiastical body which con- 
trols it. The honor and prestige which grow out of its worthy 
and successful administration, no doubt, belong to that body. 
No doubt, also, a predisposition may be felt, on the part of 
pupils and the public, toward a Christian denomination doing 
efficient work for education and science. But the spirit of 
the University demands absolute freedom from all direct 
teaching or influence of a partisan character. If such 
teaching be tolerated, free opportunity must be given to 
antagonize it. On controverted topics, discussion eliminates 
the truth. It must be expected, however, that any teacher 



6o 

will feel free to entertain inflexibly the tenets of the body 
which determines his appointment — as every teacher is free 
to entertain different opinions — and it must be expected 
that every teacher in his unofficial capacity, shall be at 
liberty to teach his tenets to such persons, inclusive of 
students, as may be pleased to listen to him. But this 
liberty could not extend to a tolerance of teaching calcu- 
lated to subvert the fundamental principles of a Christian 
institution. The law of self-preservation forbids. Christi- 
anity is our fundamental postulate. There is one depart- 
ment of the University, however, in which the religious 
body controUing it must have full liberty to teach and ex- 
pound its distinctive theological and ecclesiastical opinions. 
That is the College of Theology. 

Freedom from sectarian bias in the common teaching of 
the University is not only demanded by the catholic spirit 
of true learning, but by considerations of expediency, can- 
dor and fair dealing, in any case where people holding 
diverse ecclesiastical views, have co-operated, in the interests 
of education, with those who assume control. In the Syra- 
cuse University, every consideration dictates the laying of 
a broadly Christian foundation, and the inauguration of a 
manly, ingenuous administration. While I shall hold to 
my own and defend it, and shall claim for my church the 
chief honor which may be earned by a successful manage- 
ment, I earnestly hope that our successes may be of such a 
character as shall bring unfeigned satisfaction to the heart 
of every Christian citizen of the commonwealth, whatever 
be his creed. 

II. Internal Economy of the University. 

In descending from the fundamental idea of the Univer- 
sity, whether considered as an inheritance of the past, or a 
sequence of modern civilization, we encounter certain con- 
siderations of secondary importance, relating to the econo- 
mies of the University. 



6i 

The constitution of the legislative body of the University 
has been various, and continues so. In America, the lodge- 
ment of the function of legislation in the hands of the 
faculties has not been considered expedient, chiefly, I judge, 
because the complicated and sometimes large, pecuniary 
operations of the institution, are supposed to demand pecu- 
liar business qualifications ; but partly, I also judge, because 
it was supposed the legislation of the Faculties might be 
warped by a selfish bias, which would conflict with the 
interests of the college or the university. The body of 
students has not been vested with any amount of legislative 
control, evidently, because, in this country, our colleges and 
so-styled universities have been rather gymnasia, in which the 
requisite maturity has been lacking. Accordingly, the su- 
preme authority has always been vested in an external corpo- 
ration, in which the Faculties have generally been represented 
simply by their chief executive ofificer. In the case of State 
institutions, the legislative body has been appointed by the 
governor, with or without the consent of the senate, or has 
been elected directly by the votes of the people — a system 
which is attended by grave dangers. In the denominational 
institutions, the legislative board, once constituted from 
representatives of the controlling denomination, has gen- 
erally been made self-perpetuating. Recently, however, 
the Alumni have been permitted, in some cases, to elect 
representativ^es to the collegiate or university legislature ; 
and this policy shows a tendency to revert to the original 
methods. The government of the Syracuse University em- 
bodies the representation of five separate interests. These 
are : — ist. The controlling denomination, whose several 
" Conferences," within the State, send their representatives 
to sit on the Board of Trustees ; 2d. The co-operating 
denominations, which may send from six to nine represent- 
atives to sit upon the Board ; 3d. The Alumni, who send 
three trustees ; 4th. The State at large, represented by the 



62 

Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Chief Judge of the Court 
of Appeals, and the Superintendent of PubHc Instruction ; 
5th. The Faculties, represented by the Chancellor of the 
University. It would seem that such a representation of 
the various classes of persons interested in the success of 
the University, should secure the adoption of measures at 
once broad, well considered and permanently useful. 

Further, in respect to internal economy, the question 
arises whether the interests of higher education are likely 
to be promoted by the introduction of a system of compul- 
sory, compensated manual labor. I am fully prepared, by 
observation and experience, to render a negative opinion. 
As to compulsory military drill, my judgment is the same. 
Boys, who still need to acquire habits of order, punctuality 
and subordination, will undoubtedly be benefited by the 
discipline of systematic manual labor, or a quasi-military 
life; and all will add symmetry and vigor to the bodily 
physique by the use of such means. But, when students 
have attained to the stages of a /^2^>^^r education, they ought 
to be left free to choose, with the advice of parents and 
teachers, their own method of physical and mental devel- 
opment. 

Other questions arise, having reference to the methods 
of instruction. Originally, the exclusive method of the 
teacher, in the school or university, was by conversation 
and lectures. The lectures were, often, highly controversial 
in their character ; and dialectics, as taught and exemplified 
in the schools, was a leading subject of study by the pupils. 
But,' in those times, books were either wanting or extremely 
rare, and the principles of learning had not been digested 
into elementary treatises. 

Bringing ourselves, at once, to the condition and demands 
of modern teaching, we recognize but two fundamental 
methods — that by lectures, and that by means of labora- 
tories. In all the sciences and professions whose principles 



63 

are grounded in the facts of nature, the laboratory is indis- 
pensable. The laboratory is nature in minature, where the 
operations of her forces can be carefully studied under 
known and even predetermined conditions. The method 
in the laboratory is that of investigation, in which the col- 
lector of facts rises from generalization to broader general- 
ization, indefinitely approximating the all-embracing unity 
of ultimate truth. The lecture appropriately reverses the 
process. It seizes upon the conclusions of the sciences, and, 
by an analysis, evolves the subordinated and included prin- 
ciples, gradually approximating the facts of immediate 
observation. The lecture serves as a review and panoramic 
reproduction of the generalizations of the laboratory. It 
may even be accompanied by a reproduction of the experi- 
ments of the laboratory. This is the favorite method when 
the lecture is addressed to an audience that has not worked 
in the laboratory. As to text-books, they are but written 
memoranda, made by investigators and lecturers for conven- 
ience of pupils in reviewing the subjects presented in the 
lecture, or illustrated in the laboratory ; while quizzes, or 
" recitations " are but conversational lectures intended as 
reviews, or for the disclosure and removal of the difficulties 
which beset the pupil. 

Now, as to the relative value of these four forms of the 
two fundamental methods of education, little needs to be 
said. They must all be resorted to. A system which 
restricts itself to either one, or either two, is insufficient 
Exclusive laboratory-work supplies a vivid knowledge of 
facts ; but they do not assume a systematized and digested 
form. They are the crude material rather than the symmet- 
rical organism of science. Exclusive lectures may lodge in 
the memory the generalized principles and their proximate 
demonstrations, but they do not generally satisfy the mind's 
demand for the ultimate data. The method, moreover, 
needs to be supplemented by the quiz, to focalize the floating 
rays of knowledge in the pupil's mind, and give definiteness 



64 

and sharpness to his ideas and mental perceptions. The ex- 
clusive quiz leaves the pupil without that breadth and mass- 
iveness of view, that knowledge of the correlations of the 
different systems of truth, and those most recent develop- 
ments of science, which ought to be afforded by the lecture. 
The text-book and quiz associated, form a method very ex- 
tensively pursued, supplemented, according to the qualities of 
the teacher, by familiar lectures. But a text-book, of whatever 
excellence, is especially useful only in three ways : — ist. To 
facilitate a review of the subject ; 2d. To supply cumulative 
facts and bulky details ; 3d. To furnish references to other 
sources of information. Its use can never be a substitute 
for the living teacher full of his subject ; himself both text- 
book and authority, adapting his utterances to the infinitely 
various circumstances of pupil, occasion and theme. 

These general remarks on methods in teaching, are in- 
tended to apply to every species of higher scientific educa- 
tion. I doubt whether the study of the languages, rhetoric, 
mathematics or philosophy, needs to be excepted. In all 
these, is something which answers to the laboratory — be it 
merely the composition of sentences, as in the Ollendorffian 
system ; a mathematical problem to be solved, or a meta- 
physical question to be investigated. In medicine, the 
pharmaceutical workshop, the dissecting room, the clinic 
and companionship with an established practitioner, are 
forms of the laboratory. In law, the moot court and mock- 
parliament are the laboratory ; and in theology, the set 
sermon or the real pastoral work. 

In accordance with the views just presented concerning 
the co-ordinate importance of the four methods of teaching, 
it appears that our schools of medicine and law have gen- 
erally placed undue reliance upon the lecture. Quizzes 
have the same function and the same rights here as in the 
College of Liberal Arts. The same may be said of the use 
of text-books and of quizzes upon them. I feel peculiar 
satisfaction in observing that the College of Physicians and 



65 

Surgeons in this University, has been organized upon a 
comprehensive and original basis, embracing both these 
educational methods. 

It may be stated, in conclusion of this topic, that the 
method by lectures may be more extensively employed with 
maturer minds, the method by quiz and recitation, with the 
younger ; that the lecture-method is most employed in the 
universities of the continent; the recitation and text-book, 
most used in the English universities, and those American 
colleges and universities which adhere most closely to the 
Enghsh models ; while other American colleges and uni- 
versities, notably the University of Michigan, have been free 
to combine and adapt the two methods. 

As a corollary of the foregoing positions, term and final 
examinations of students should be most rigorous with those 
instructed by lecture. They are but a form, where the stu- 
dent has undergone a daily quiz, and can possess little real 
utility. 

The uses and abuses of tutors have given rise to much 
comment and serious discussion. There is no sound reason 
why tutors should be discontinued, or their presence dis- 
guised under other designations. Some of the most efficient, 
and much of the most laborious work is done by them. The 
raillery of students is no criterion of their usefulness. The 
quizzing and examination of pupils, and the hearing of reci- 
tations, may be largely committed to their hands. No 
professor should be required to sacrifice the interests of 
higher labors, in work which another can more economically 
perform. 

As to the principle oi prizes, involving also the marking 
system, much difference of opinion has been expressed. We 
detect a strong modern tendency to renounce it, in its usual 
scholastic aspects. I have never been able to sympathize 
fully with this tendency. We cannot divest human life of 
its prizes ; nor of the struggles and sacrifices, exultation 
and dejection incident to the stimulus of competition for 



66 

life's prizes. The struggle for the highest good is a law of 
nature, through all the ranks of life up to man. The post 
of honor or responsibility in the state, the church, or any 
profession ; appointment to office with or without competi^- 
tive examinations ; the praises, even, of our fellow men — 
these all are prizes which awaken the same rivalries as 
comp'^tition for standing in college. Honest, earnest effort 
loves to be recognized — loves to be awarded distinction. 
This is an innate sentiment of humanity, and does not exist 
without a meaning. 

It is hoped, however, that these remarks will not be con- 
strued into an unqualified endorsement of the methods of 
prize-offering, still less the forms and applications of the 
marking system, which have given such just offense in 
many instances, and have brought a good principle into 
disrepute. 

The question oi dormitories dind college co mm 07ts y>ossqs>?>q.?> 
a rapidly waning interest for the newer collegiate organiza- 
tions. The dormitory and the commons are a bequest of 
Old and New England, which we gladly exchange for the 
more natural and humanizing domestic life of real family 
relations. Every university-city or town will be found ready 
to offer family comforts to all its students. Some inroad is 
made, by this arrangement, upon the traditional esprit of 
student-life ; but the ends of good order, sobriety, industry 
and true manliness are vastly better subserved by it. 

Such a distribution of the body of students through the 
city, affords the government of the university most import- 
ant relief The student becomes a citizen of the place, 
amenable for his conduct to the same civil authority as the 
other citizens. This fact throws him upon his best moral 
principles, securing them a healthy gymnastic, and tending 
to develop a sturdy manhood and a noble maturity. The 
self-regulative powers of the individual, it should be the 
object of the University, in all its discipline, to develop. My 
ideal of university government is one in which the body of 



67 

Students is controlled by a high public sentiment of its own. 
Crime, trickery, meanness, dishonesty, shirking, dread more 
the frown of the student-community than all the punish- 
ments a faculty may be empowered to inflict. 

A university located in a city of over fifty thousand in- 
habitants, must be surrounded by a considerable variety of 
educational institutions. These and the university have a 
common aim. The chain oi public schools should be linked 
as closely as possible to the university. The university is 
bound to present a character which will render it honorable 
and advantageous for the city-schools to affiliate themselves 
with it. And so of other educational enterprises. If they 
are worthy, the university regards them with interest and 
fraternal sympathy, and pledges them its countenance and 
support. Some of them may yet develop the true character 
cf colleges, and may even come under the university organ- 
ization, with reciprocal benefits to all. 

The spirit of the modern university is watchful, progress- 
ive and adaptive. It is broad and liberal. It guarantees 
to al], intellectual freedom. Every professor is free in his 
ow'n department ; every student is exempt from subscription 
to any article of faith. It is conservative of all that is good 
in the past ; it is progressive toward all that is good in the 
future. It aims to be abreast of humanity in its onward 
march ; quick to see and appreciate every new development 
of thought ; afraid of no truth ; still less afraid of untruth ; 
ready to battle with every error, and vindicate every posi- 
tion, even its own religious faith (since faith is reasonable) 
at the bar of reason ; devout toward God and reverent to- 
ward Christ the Redeemer and divine exemplar of mankind. 

These general propositions respecting the internal econ- 
omy of the modern university, require, for their practical 
application, a more detailed development, and, perhaps, in 
some cases, a more argumentative presentation. But nei- 
ther the development nor the argument is demanded by 
he present occasion. 



68 

III. THE MATERIAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY. 

What we have said is a glance at the soul of the Univer- 
sity, and the method of its activity. But, now, the Univer- 
sity is an 07'ganism. It has a body, furnished with the 
various organs requisite for the fulfillment of the mandates 
of the soul. First of all, stands the phalanx <di professors. 
These are the brain and heart of the university. The typi- 
cal professor is a man who has given up all for learning's 
sake. With a broad apprehension of the kinship of all 
systems of truth, he has committed himself to the explora- 
tion of a chosen field. While preserving faith toward his 
specialty, he never runs into a rut from which he cannot at 
will escape. He glances over the achievements of his fel- 
low-laborers in the field of thought, and his sympathies 
warm toward every new development of truth. His heart 
responds to the throbs of the heart of humanity, and he 
does not cease to be a man, or a member of society, because 
he has become a scholar. 

He is more than this. The professor is both a scholar 
and a teacher. Too often, in the German universities, have 
the requirements of the teacher been overlooked. Our 
typical professor is apt in communicating his ideas. He 
has a soul to be fired by the revelations of truth which come 
to him. The spirit of eloquence warms in his breast, and 
it finds a fitting vehicle for utterance in beautiful phrase. 
But he never dogmatizes, for the republic of letters tolerates 
no autocrat. He respects the intellectual freedom of his 
pupils, and cultivates it ; for what else is education but cul- 
tivated spontaneity ? Clear in his convictions of the known, 
he is humbled by the magnitude and mystery of the un- 
known. Conscious of the dignity and worth of intellectual 
strength, he worships devoutly before the throne of the 
Supreme Intelligence and Power. 

But while our ideal professor has renounced all things for 
the truth's sake — to gain and dispense God's truth as re- 
vealed to man in consciousness, in nature and in Scripture 



6g 

— he has not been vouchsafed exemption from the contin- 
gencies of mortal existence. The body must be fed and 
clothed. The family must be maintained and placed within 
the reach of that culture which fills the ideal of Christian 
civilization. The professor owes these debts to himself and 
his family. The University owes the means to him ; and 
should graduate its allowances to the comparative usefulness 
of his gifts, a just perception of the requisites to individual 
and family culture, and the relative value of the currency at 
the time and place. No person occupying a professor's 
chair can possibly render his best energies to the cause of 
learning, as long as he is tormented and distracted by a 
study of the ways and means of material existence. 

In the next place, the students are a constituent part of 
the University ; for there can be no teachers without some- 
body to teach. Now, while the learning, ability and repu- 
tation of the professors give character to a university, the 
body of students gives tone. On them devolves a high 
responsibility in initiating and perpetuating that sort of 
esprit du corps whose fruits are order, without visible au- 
thority ; harmony, without the loss of individuality ; court- 
esy, without servility ; sobriety, without staidness ; temper* 
ance, without asceticism ; industry, without loss of social 
amenities ; gentleness, without effeminacy ; manliness, 
without rudeness ; ambition, without unscrupulousness ; 
mental independence, without dogmatism ; piety, without 
cant ; spirituality, without superstition ; orthodoxy, with- 
out ostentation. 

The student remains a constituent of the University in 
becoming an alumnate. The alumnates^ — or body of alumni 
and alumnae— are the great depository of the learning and 
amenities of university life, from which we invite the public 
to draw, and from which the world will test the quality of 
the knowledge and culture which we impart. They are the 
delegates of the University, duly commissioned to represent 
the interests of learning wherever go. Each alumnate is, 



70 

in a certain sense, a branch of the University, toward which 
its eyes are constanty turned, for whose acts it will be held 
to a certain responsibility, and toward which it seeks to 
maintain an advisory and parental relation. Your literary 
mother, gentlemen and ladies, whether your natural or your 
stepmother, craves your confidence, your love, and your 
fidelity. 

Accessory to the labors of the faculties and the progress 
of the students, are those ample means of demonstration 
which the modern sciences and modern methods of educa- 
tion have rendered absolutely indispensable to complete 
success. The University demands apparatus, laboratories, 
observatories and museums. I will not enlarge upon the 
special utilities of these different orders of adjuncts. The 
physical sciences demand, especially, outfits of apparatus to 
illustrate their principles and their methods of investigation. 
They demand laboratories — especially chemical, physical, 
geological, zoological and botanical, in which the student 
may manipulate and experiment for himself, repeating the 
operations of the discoverer, or even originating operations 
for himself The professors demand these laboratories, both 
as aids to education and aids to research. Original research 
is one of the first duties of the professor. Nothing inspires 
the pupil with a more potent enthusiasm for science than 
association with one who brings out new results before his 
eyes. But how shall the professor experiment — how shall 
he make additions to the sphere of knowledge — how shall 
he fulfill this highest function of the educator, if compelled 
to mourn the lack of means which his compeers in their 
various callings are employing, to build up a fame for 
themselves and the institutions which they honor 1 I could 
speak with warmth upon this subject, for here is perpetrated, 
too often, a towering wrong upon the man who, full of the 
ardor of science, and blessed with the gifts to further its 
ends, consents to assume the responsibilities of the profes- 
sor's chair, but to find himself in a jacket, in which he may 



71 

struggle and aspire and grieve in vain, while his soul's best 
gifts wither and waste in their unnatural and enforced con- 
finement. If you demand men, make place for them. 

Museums subserve, also, a double end : ist. To illustrate 
to the student the facts, the principles and the history of 
science and art ; 2d. To afford material for professional 
study and the advancement of learning. For these ends, 
the University demands collections illustrating geology, 
zoology, botany, history, aesthetics, numismatics, ethnology, 
archaeology, anatomy, materia medica and the industrial arts 
and sciences. 

Libraries constitute another class of auxiliaries in the 
work of education. I would not urge upon the student a 
range of reading much beyond that indicated by the advice 
of his instructors. Still less would I recommend the devo- 
tion of any considerable share of time to the perusal of 
periodicals — especially of newspapers. One or two good 
dailies may be followed up from day to day, with profit, and 
select articles from a larger range of magazines and reviews. 
The selection, however, should be adapted to the reader, 
and not made, once for all, by some publishing house. Still, 
an extended range of periodicals should be accessible, to 
meet the varied tastes and wants of different students and 
professors. Especially should the reading room be rich in 
periodicals worth binding — reports of the newest thoughts 
of the brightest minds in every department of literature, art 
and science. 

But the chief service of a library is as an auxiliary to the 
labors of the professors. A library is a depository of the 
best results of human thought in all ages and countries. 
To such a depository the investigator much have access — 
first, To inform his own mind, and possess himself of the 
data worked out by the patience of his predecessors ; 
secondly. To prevent a waste of his time and energies in 
elaborating results already reached, and to warn him from 



72 

lines of research which have been shown to lead to no 
useful ends ; thirdly, To place him in possession of a maga- 
zine of information vastly beyond the compass of the text- 
books, from which he can draw, according to necessity or 
opportunity, and dispense to his pupils. This information 
may relate largely to the history and biography of his 
special subject of instruction ; and must, naturally, contain 
also, a large element of the very ne\<^est results, which may 
require years to find their way into the text-books. 

In suggesting, perhaps to the surprise of some, that uni- 
versity libraries should be adapted rather to the wants of 
professors than to those of students, it is not meant to deny 
that the students have the chief and ultimate interest in the 
libraries. There are three ways in which the student se- 
cures their advantages : \st. In the perusal of current works 
of literature, art and science, selected especially to meet the 
demand for popular reading, felt by every person ; 2d. In 
the careful reading and study of those special treatises to 
which the student may be recommended by his professors ; 
'^dly, and pre-eminently, in the condensed reproduction of 
the choicest contents of the library in the lectures of his 
professors. In an hour's space, the student will thus make 
acquisitions which it may have cost the professor days or 
years, nay, a life-time, to provide. 

Now, how shall the student acquire such instruction 
without such professors } And how shall such professors 
arise without the opportunities which create them } To 
assert that the professor has the text-book for his guidance, 
is to betray a contemptible conception of the function of a 
hio:her teacher. To assert that he must come to his work 
fully furnished with all requisite knowledge, is either to 
confess ignorance of the extent of knowledge requisite, and 
of its incessant expansion, or to demand a professor who has 
already spent a life-time in storing his memory and his 
note-books with the select contents of libraries provided 
under more liberal auspices ; and such a demand would be 



73 

preposterous. Such professors the interests of learning 
never permit to abide in the waste and desert places. 

Now, it may as well be stated at this moment, as at any 
time hereafter, that there is no successful university possible 
without extensive libraries. You can " run an institution ' 
without them ; and, in America, there is no law to prevent 
your styling it a university ; but I can assure you, Mr. 
President of the Board of Trustees, that the best of men will 
never retain your chairs if they m.ust know that office here 
means banishment from communion with books, many 
books, and books in all languages. I can assure you that 
the cry for learned men, many learned men, original men 
in the walks of literature and science within the precincts of 
the colleges and universities of your own denomination, will 
never be hushed, until your brightest men are released from 
the doom of mental starvation. I can assure you that any 
professor worthy to occupy a chair in the university which 
fills the noble ideal you have pictured, is either a man who 
has spent an invaluable part of his life in the hopes and 
disappointments incident to connection with some poor col- 
lege, and now comes here, at your invitation, to realize the 
fulfillment of the promises of a fairer enterprize, or else he 
is a man who, with years of the genial influences of libraries 
storing his head and pervading his heart, comes to cast head 
and heart and hands into the grandest and most auspicious 
educational enterprise which has yet been initiated by the 
great religious body which you and I represent. Neither 
class of men will bow their heads to sentence of perpetual 
exclusion from those conclaves where the spirits of the good 
and great of all ages are gathered together, and speak to us 
from the living page. 

These, sir, are emphatic words, but they are uttered not 
in the extremity of despair, but in the strength of conviction 
and the prophecy of faith. I wish the impression to go 
forth throughout the length and breadth of this common- 
wealth that there is not a man in authority here who will 



74 

ever content himself with the conclusion that this University 
is not to be greater and more beneficent than has yet arisen 
under the auspices of our religious denomination. We 
have no vanity in this, sir ; we have only profound convic- 
tions respecting the best interests of learning, and the vast- 
ness of our wealth, and the grandeur of our purposes. 

T have thus spoken in reference to the material acces- 
sories of the work of education. To complete the enumer- 
ation, I should add the buildings. I heartily congratulate 
the University on the possession of an edifice so elegant, so 
wisely planned, so substantial and so eligibly located as the 
one now approa-ching completion. This, to some American 
eyes, will be the University. It is a noble exponent of the 
University's noble ideal. Other edifices, I doubt not, will 
rise, as the pressing needs of the University demand them. 
I have said the University is visibly represented by the 
instructors and students, and the material accessories to 
their work. It remains to mention the third constituent of 
the body of the university — the legal corporation. This is 
the University, in the eye of the law. It stands for the 
University and acts for the University in all legal proceed- 
ings. It stands under the University, governs the Univer- 
sity, and determines the conditions of its existence, growth, 
and usefulness ; and is, in fact, a constituent of the Univer- 
sity, I am tempted to pause and comment on the consti- 
tution of the corporation of the University, but I feel that I 
must forbear. I content myself with saying that I think it 
well considered — broad, liberal, justly balanced, and in every 
way, eminently judicious. I see in this a cheering ground 
to hope that this body fully appreciates the weight of re- 
sponsibility which has been placed upon its shoulders. 

IV. FINANCIAL BASIS OF THE UNIVERSITY. 

After what has been said of the scope and magnitude of 
a university, its great financial demands must follow as a 
corollary. Once, brains were the sole requisite. The stu- 



75 

dents and professor, or professors, constituted the univer- 
sity ; they assembled in inexpensive quarters and became a 
law unto themselves. With the multiplication of the 
sciences, arts and professions, and the diversification and 
improvement of human civilization, have grown up the needs 
of more professors, more books and more material for illus- 
tration and demonstration. The sum of money demanded 
for the creation of a modern university is simply enormous. 
The University of Berlin was founded in 1809, with an an- 
nual allowance of 150,000 thalers, which represented a pro- 
ductive capital of about six million thalers. The English 
Parliament, during the year 1872, appropriated ^2,400,000 
to the British Museum, and ^2,900,000 to the South Ken- 
sington " Department of Science and Art." According to a 
recent report of President Eliot, the gross amount of funds 
held by the Corporation of Harvard University is over 
$2,190,000. Of this amount, $730,000 is the income-yield- 
ing capital devoted to the purposes designated " University," 
" College " and " Library, exclusive of books" — the Divinity, 
Law, Medical, and Scientific Schools, the Observatory, the 
Bussey Institution, the Dental School and the increase of 
the Library being maintained from other sources of income.* 
Such sums, I say, are enormous ; yet, taking another 
standpoint, they are but a small percentage of the debt 
which money owes to mind. Science has originated — what, 
among the great and legitimate agencies of money-making 
has science not originated ? Here is your Central Railroad 
rolling through your city fifteen hundred freight cars daily, 
and rolling the wealth of the west — the wealth of the east — 



*It may be instructive to extend statements of this sort. For instance, the annual 
incomes of certain strictly scientific institutions and departments of institutions are 
stated to be as follows: — Natural History Department of the British Museum, 
$100,000} Zoological Society of London, $100,000 to $125,0005 Zoological 
Society of Amsterdam, $50,000; Zoological Garden at Hamburg, $30,000 ; Kew 
Garden at London, $100,000; Berlin Aquarium, $50,000; Jardin des Plantes, 
$200,000; Museum in Edinburgh, $45,000; College of Surgery in London, 
$55,000; Imperial Geological Institute in Vienna, $40,000. The annual income 
of the University of Michigan is now $84,000. 



76 

the wealth of the world, into the coffers of its stockholders. 
Who invented the railroad, the locomotive, the steam- 
engine, through which this enormous traffic is carried on ? 
Was it the men into whose pockets the profits are gathered? 
Or was it men nurtured in the schools of science and art ? 
Where originated the idea of the electric telegraph, whose 
ceaseless clicks mean countless dollars to American citizens ? 
In a dingy laboratory in the Old World. In the night 
watches of a poor professor of the New World. But the fact 
is patent, and the thought is trite. Money can never repay 
the debt it owes to mind. But let it, at least, acknowledge 
its obligation. Let it, at least, make confession to the world 
that learning sustains most intimate relations to the sources 
of wealth, and to the conditions of society which confer upon 
wealth its value — protecting it, and making it the means of 
human happiness. There is only one way in which money 
can practically make this confession. It must bestow un- 
stinted patronage upon the institutions of learning. 

Thanks to the humanitarian culture which the American 
civil polity has conferred upon American citizenship. The 
nation may not found and rear its universities ; but the 
citizens of the nation will do it. States may seldom devote 
the public resources to such ends, but individuals reared by 
the state will consecrate their millions. Kings and princes 
we have not, to draw from their magnificent revenues the 
means to establish schools of science and art ; but princely, 
royal civilians we have, who are tendering resources with 
more than imperial generosity. Thanks to the conservatism 
of the state, it has left the field of higher education clear for 
the development and exercise of the grandest private mu- 
nificence the world has ever witnessed. 

With grateful heart, with exultant hope, we record the 
fact that our own University has been the recipient of a 
generous share of this munificence. There are names al- 
ready mentioned in her history, which will be handed down 
to the latest generations, gathering increasing veneration 



77 

with the rolHng years. The University shall be their 
monument ; and unlike the pyramids, destitute of the for- 
gotten names of their ambitious builders, the University 
will inscribe the names of its founders and benefactors im- 
perishably upon the pages of its history, and engrave them 
ineffaceably upon all its walls. 

With peculiar pleasure, I acknowledge, in behalf of the 
University, a generous contribution just received for the 
Museum of Geology, from one of our adopted alumni, him- 
self at once an ornament to science, a successful author and 
a patron of learning. It consists of copies of three of the 
giants of the extinct world — the Megatherium, the Glyptodon 
and the Colossochelys. These, in due time, you will see 
mounted, and preaching their lessons, in our temporary 
museum, inscribed with the name of J. Dorman Steele. 

I desire to add an especial word of grateful acknowledg- 
ment to the corporation and citizens of Syracuse for the 
ready monetary sympathy with which they have responded 
to the demands of this great educational enterprise domi- 
ciled in their midst. I should do violence to my own feel- 
ings not to acknowledge, also, the cheering cordiality with 
which I, as a representative of the University, have been 
welcomed to their city, and the universal interest which has 
been manifested in my prospective work. 

I embrace the occasion, however, to remind our citizens 
that they will be the largest sharers in the intellectual, so- 
cial and material results which the University will create. 
A city like this, should furnish at least a hundred persons 
annually, desirous of opportunities for higher education. We 
aspire to build here an institution which will enable them to 
fulfill their desires without foregoing the privileges of the 
parental roof Viewed only in its influence upon the 
;;^^/m<^/ prosperity of the city, a new university, founded 
under such auspices, is not to be regarded merely with the 
same interest with which you welcome the advent of some 
new manufacturing or commercial enterprise. You, citizens 



78 

of Syracuse, have lacked nothing which ordinary business 
energy could win. You have not lacked even the best 
system of public schools in the State. The University 
brings within your reach a new class of agencies. Its affili- 
ations will not only ramify through your city, but will reach 
out to every city and hamlet and school-room in the State, 
weaving the wide interests of education in a common web 
of sympathy with it, and turning all eyes — nay, I hope soon, 
the world's eyes — toward the Central City. 

The city, therefore, can afford to be generous toward the 
University. The city might even afford to sustain the 
University, and monopolize the munificence of creating 
such an endowment as would satisfy the needs of the Uni- 
versity demanded by modern science, modern culture and 
modern industry, upon the American soil. 

Ample opportunities still exist for individual benevolence. 
Libraries, departments of libraries, cabinets, laboratories 
and observatories are yet to be founded and endowed ; and 
buildings are to be erected for their uses. Lectureships 
and professorships remain to be endowed. Here is room 
for a wide range of tastes and sympathies. Chairs of 
physical science, languages ancient or modern, mathe- 
matics, aesthetics, history and philosophy, suggest noble 
means to perpetuate the memory of worthy names. I hope 
the time is not distant when some far-seeing patron of 
learning may be moved to endow a chair which might be 
styled the chair of the " Philosophy of the Sciences." 

I enter upon this field of labor with cheerful hope, and 
assuring faith. I am here only because I have faith in the 
mind and heart and will of this people to honor Christian 
beneficence in creating here a genuine — a grand Univer- 
sity. The strength of the bonds I have broken in identify- 
ing myself with this enterprise, few can appreciate. But, 
like Cortez, I have burned my ships behind me, and must 
conquer success or perish. I rely first, and always, upon 
Divine aid to guide and second my best endeavor ; and I 



79 

trust next, to the enlarged intelligence and wise munificence 
of the men of Syracuse, and those other noble men and 
women throughout the State, who may yet feel moved to 
consecrate some portion of their wealth to the cause of Chris- 
tian Learning. 



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